


At the Wrong Place at the Right Time

by Artdirector123



Category: Doctor Who, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Crossover, Friendship, Hughes doesn't die
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-19
Updated: 2016-11-19
Packaged: 2018-08-31 22:57:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8597053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Artdirector123/pseuds/Artdirector123
Summary: Maes Hughes has an important call to make about a terrible conspericy he discovered. unfortunetly, or maybe fortunetly, he steps into the wrong phone booth.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So, just imagine in this crossover, the Fullmetal alchemist world exists in the Doctor who universe, but is a separate planet from Earth. I hope I kept everyone in character. Enjoy the story!

This was bad, Hughes thought as he limped down the road, clutching his bleeding arm. Really, really bad. He had found out what those people in lab five were up to. They were creating some kind of transmutation circle out of of the country, or at least that’s what it appeared to be. He hadn’t gotten as much time as he would have liked to figure everything out, as they had also figured out what he as up to!  
He was lucky he kept his throwing knives on him at all times, otherwise, he would have been done for. He still might be done for, and that’s why before he did anything else, he had to tell Roy what was going on. His vision was becoming slightly blurry as he felt weaker. Damn it! He had to keep going! Who knows what would happen if he gave up now!  
In the distance he saw the silhouette of a phone booth. he noticed it as the light that shined from on top of it. That was strange. he’d never seen a phone booth with a light on top of it before. As he got closer, he noticed further oddities about it. First of all, there were no translucent windows covering the side, but there were some semi opaque ones on top. The rest of it was made of wood that had been painted blue. Hughes raised an eyebrow. To be honest, it didn’t look anything like a phone booth. The only indication that it was any kind of phone booth was the sign at the the top that read “POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX”. Hughes furrowed his brow before approaching it. One would think it would be smart to steer clear of it. It clearly did not belong, so one could easily assume it was a trap. However, Maes knew that wasn’t the case. It was too obviously out of place. No one in the right mind was going to fool anyone with that thing. Besides, why would anyone make such a thing in advanced as a backup trap? What would be going through their minds to think that they needed this specific object placed right here incase he escaped?   
And so he decided to approach it. The worst that could happen was that there was no phone inside and he’d have to find a real booth. He put a hand on the door handle and began to pull on the door. As it opened, he was engulfed in a bright light. He covered his eyes for a moment before he blinked, letting his eyes adjust to the light. Once he had, his jaw dropped at what he saw. There was indeed no phone present, but what he saw instead was absolutely impossible. The was a room. A whole room held up with coral like arches supporting the high ceiling. The wall was covered in holes spewing light which pooled around a central column and some kind of control deck with so many buttons that he didn’t think he could count them all. Hughes blinked. He would pinch himself to see if he were dreaming, but the searing pain in his arm already told him he was very much awake.   
Still this couldn’t be real. maybe it was some kind of optical illusion or he was hallucinating. That had to be it. His brain was being fooled somehow, and there really was only the inside of a phone booth in front of him He held out his hand, expecting for it to meet the inner wall or the handle of a phone but it did not. He stepped three paces further inside, but still he did not hit the back wall.  
He then stepped outside for a moment to peer over the side and touch the back of the booth. It was there, only an arm length and a half from where he had been. A much farther distance from what he had been able to walk. He swallowed, horribly confused by what was going on and slightly scared. This was absolutely impossible. Something that mad men dreamed of. It defied all the laws of physics. Yet her it was. A part of him was screaming at himself not to step back inside and find another booth, but his curiosity had overcome him. He had to know what this thing was. Maybe it could help them somehow.   
He stepped back inside and carefully looked around him. It was unlike anything he had ever seen before. He didn’t know if it was the blood lose talking or not, but the glowing piston in the center seemed almost alive. As he stepped up onto the metal grating. The door suddenly swung close. Maes turned around in surprise. He ran over to the door and tried to push it open but to no avail. He slammed against it several times with his good shoulder before he lost the strength to continue. Looks like he had been wrong. This really was some kind of trap.   
His head became dizzy as he leaned against the metal door. What an idiot he had been! This was all his fault. If he had just moved past this thing he could have reached a real telephone and possibly survived if he were lucky enough. At least he would have been able to reach Roy. Now the crucial information he had discovered was going to die with him as he bled out onto the floor of this strange paradoxical blue box.   
“I’m sorry, Gracia…” he whispered to himself as he stumped to the floor, “I’m sorry Elicia...I’m sorry Roy…” He closed his eyes as he felt like he was going to pass out at any minute.   
“All righty then!” a perky voice cut through the air, causing Hughe’s eyes to snap open again. He looked up to see a man enter the room from what appeared to be an entrance to a hallway. He was strange looking, with spiky brown hair and brown pinstripe suit. While most of his attire matched the formal suit, his strange shoes looked extremely casual, like something Edward might wear. Who was this guy? Was he affiliated with the oroborus freaks?   
“Well then, now that we’ve got everything fixed up from that Titanic crash, how about we go somewhere a little more relaxing, eh old girl?” he said to seemingly no one in particular. Maes furrowed his brow. Who was he talking to? was someone else in the room? “Maybe we can just stop by the andromeda galaxy for a tick,” he said as he began pulling levers and pressing buttons, circling around the control pannel, “Been awhile since I’ve visited one of their spa planets.”  
It was then that Maes realized this man was clearly insane. He was talking to the structure they were currently inhabiting. He sighed. Well he supposed it was better to die in the presence of a lunatic than by being stabbed to death by the freak with long nails.   
The man caught the foreign sound and paused in his motions. He crooked an eyebrow. He had thought he was alone. He swore he was alone. He hadn’t brought anyone with him back to the TARDIS…he circled around the controls until he came to spot a man collapsed by the door. His large eyes widened in surprise and he blinked a few times. However, the strange man in the unfamiliar military uniform was still there.   
“What?” he questioned aloud, “W-what?!” There was a pause before he glanced around and spoke again. “Who…” he started, slowly approaching him, “Who are you? And how did you even get in here? I thought the TARDIS was locked?” The Doctor was absolutely baffled. Why was he here? And why was he on the floor?  
Hughe’s vision was very blurry now. “H-huh?” he said, “What’s that?” He tried to sit up but began swaying and collapsed again.  
The Doctor’s eyes widened again as he saw the blood running down his uniform. Oh. That’s how he got in. The TARDIS let him in. “You’re injured…” he breathed before running over to him and trying to help him up. “Come on, Let’s get you to the med bay,” he practically had to drag the tall, semi conscious man up the stairs. Thankfully the man didn’t protest, but he wasn’t exactly helpful either. He ended up having to support him all the way to the med bay. However, the Doctor didn’t mind too much. True, he did not know who this man was, or how he got injured, but he was not about to let some poor man die on him. Not if he could help it.   
….  
Envy stood outside the box, watching from afar as Maes stepped inside the box. He smirked as he transformed into Maria Ross. This was going to be too easy. He began walking forward, but then froze as Hughes backed out of the box again, a look of bewilderment on his face. Then, to the homonculus’ confusion, he reached around the back of the booth and touched it. This, for some ungodly reason, caused the human to pale and take a few steps back. Envy watched this with confusion and bizarre interest before Hughes stepped into the box again, the door closing behind him.   
Envy once again blinked in confusion before shaking his head. Humans were weird. He starting to walk up to the box, gun cocked, but nearly jumped as the lieutenant colonel started banging on the door from the inside. As it stopped the startled homunculus couldn’t help but wonder what was going on inside. Then with a smile he realized something. He locked himself inside. The idiot locked himself inside! Envy burst out laughing at that. What a moron! How does one get stuck inside a phone booth?! Envy shook his head before going up to the door, gun in one hand and the other reaching out to pull the door open.   
He gaven a sharp tug….but the door didn’t open. He tried again, but still nothing. The homunculus frowned before putting away his gun and using both hands and all his strength to try and rip the door off of its hinges. Once again, nothing happened. Envy growled at it. What the hell was up with this thing? Whatever. He supposed he could just carry it back and they could pry it open from there. He put his arms around it and tried to lift it…but it did not move.   
Envy gave a baffled expression before trying again. He knelt down and tried to lift it from the base, using all of his strength to do so. Still it would not budge. He growled again before kicking it, causing him to have to hop around on his foot as he clutched the injured one. Once he was finished he glared at the annoying blue box, gritting his teeth. That was it! He was done with this stupid thing!  
He whipped out his gun and pointed it at the door. “Fine! If that’s how you want to play it…” he grumbled as he fired several shots into the wooden door. Envy smiled in satisfaction as smoke rose from the holes in the door. Like shooting fish in a barrel. However, his smile faded as the holes slowly closed on their own and the bullets fell out. Envy backed up slightly. “What the….” he breathed. What was up with this box?! How was that even possible?! Was it some sort of….homunculus box? He didn’t have time to figure it out, as the light on top started to flash in and out as the box began to emit some sort of wheezing-groaning noise.   
Wind picked up around the homunculus before he started to see the box fade out of reality. He backed up, gun falling to the ground eyes as wide as saucers as it disappeared from existence. There was an awkward silence as Envy stared at where the box had been. He glanced around, trying to see if anyone else had seen that. What the hell had just happened?! He was so baffled by what had just happened that he had no idea what to do or say. After several minutes he shrugged and turned around to leave. Well, the lieutenant colonel was indeed gone so...mission accomplished?  
….  
The Doctor had just finished setting up the strange soldier with an IV with blood after patching up his shoulder and was now sitting on the counter staring at the an curiously. Who was he? How did he get injured? In remove his coat the get at the wound, a picture of the man with a woman and child had fallen out, so he was clearly a family man. And by the looks of the picture it was both fairly new and fairly well-worn, probably from taking it out of his pocket so often. Clearly he loved his family ，dearly. That was good. It meant he wasn't dealing with some cold hearted murderer. And he wasn't wearing any particularly notorious uniform so he probably wasn't fighting for a truly terrible cause. Probably...course, he could be completely wrong.  
But what was really funny was the man had no gun on him (that he was complaining). But he only had a knife on him and his wound wasn’t a bullet wound but a stab wound. It really made him wonder what sort of trouble the man had been in before stumbling into his time machine…  
Suddenly there was a rumble as the TARDIS gave a signal that the outside had been attacked. It rumbled again as it tried to take off on it’s own. “Wait!” the Doctor cried running out into the hall. They couldn’t leave now! They had to get this man back home once he was recovered. He quickly ran to the control deck and started pressing buttons and pulling levers. He couldn’t get it to land where it had been before, but he could at least get the TARDIS to say within orbit of the planet. With one final switch, he was able to get it to stop and breathed a sigh of relief. Now he just had to wait until the man woke up for him to tell him what happened to him.   
…  
Maes groaned as he woke up. The room was a blinding white color. He blinked as his eyes adjusted to it. He sat up in confusion as he glanced around the room in suspicion. He could barely see anything as his glasses no longer sat on his face but the table beside him. Where was he? He looked himself over and was surprised to find that he was lying in a hospital bed of some sort. His military jacket was gone and so were his boots. There was a nearely empty IV sticking into his right arm. He put a hand to his shoulder and found it completely healed. There wasn’t even a scar! How was that possible.   
Maes was dumbstruck. What the heck had happened? The last thing he remembered was lying on the ground in that strange room and that man was walking towards him…  
“Oh good you're up! I was worried you’d sleep the whole day away!” a voice with a very distinctive and unfamiliar accent said. Hughes looked over to the door to see the man, or rather, a very brown blur. He squinted his eyes at him to try and make out who was speaking to him. The Doctor gave him a confused look before realization dawned on him. “Oh, sorry!” he said, “Your glasses are on the table next to you. They fell off while trying to get you on the bed so I set them there.”  
Maes nodded before feeling around the table for his spectacles and putting them on. He blinked his eyes as they refocused. “You!” he said as he recognized the person, “You’re the man who I saw in that room!”  
“Yup!” he said, “That was me. I’m the Doctor by the way.”  
Maes raised an eyebrow. “Doctor who?” he questioned, eyeing the man suspiciously.  
The Doctor smiled in amusement. Oh, it never got old hearing that. “Just the Doctor,” he said.  
Maes gave him a funny look. “What, is that some kind of code name?” he asked.  
The Doctor shrugged. “Not really, but it wasn’t my original name,” he explained as he walked over to the counter where a teapot was, “I prefer it though. Anyways, would you like some tea?” He held up the pot and a mug.   
Maes contemplated this before slowly nodding. He watched as the man poured him the cup and waited a moment before taking a sip. “Thanks…” he finally said, “I appreciate you saving me back there. Although I have to ask, where did you take me? This doesn’t look anything like any hospital I’ve ever been in.”  
“It’s not,” he explained, “It’s my own personal sick bay. I have it incase of emergencies while traveling. I don’t usually need it, however.”  
“Uh-huh…” Hughes said, not fully understanding what the man was talking about. He didn’t know how he could have an entire medical facility travel with him, but he had just been in a blue box that was bigger on the inside earlier, so he decided not to question.  
“So, what’s your name?” the Doctor asked, “I already told you mine, after all.”  
“Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes,” he answered, “I work in the investigations branch.” Although he was still slightly suspicious of this man, he could tell he was probably not a threat. He seemed kind, if a bit crazy at the same time.  
The man seemed to smile. “Ah! A detective!” he said, “I’m a bit of an amature investigator myself. Though most would just call me extremely nosy or a pest.”  
Hughes smiled. “People would describe me the same way at times,” he said, “Though sadly my job isn’t as exciting as a private I. I mostly deal with paperwork all day.”  
“Is that so?” the Doctor said, “You seem to have plenty of excitement in your life with that wound you ended up with last night.” “What happened to you? And how did you get inside my TARDIS?” he said.   
“Your what?” Maes questioned.  
“My TARDIS. The blue box you got inside last night,” the doctor explained.   
“Oh…” he said, “Well I was looking for a phone booth. I had just been attacked in my office and I went to call my friend to tell him about what I had discovered and--” He stopped as he realize fully what the Doctor had said. “Wait, did you say last night?!” he cried, “How long was I out?!”  
“Roughly nine hours,” the Doctor said with a shrug.  
“Crap!” he cried pulling off the sheets and pulling out the IV.  
The Doctor took a step back in surprise. “Woah, Woah! What are you doing! Stop that!” he said moving over to him to get him back into bed. However, Hughes was already out of bed, having grabbed his military jacket that the Doctor had fixed and his boots as he headed for the door.   
“I’m sorry! I really appreciate all you have done for me, but I have to get back home!” he explained as he threw on his jacket and forced on his boots as he ran down the hall, “I’ve got a wife and family! they’re probably worried sick! Plus I still have to call and warn Roy.”  
“I understand, Sir!” the Doctor called after him as he chased him down the hall, “And I’ll get you home soon enough, but I need to explain something to you first!”   
However, Maes barely heard him as he turned the corner into the control room. He raised an eyebrow. It was all one place? Just how many rooms did this place have” He shook his head. It didn’t matter. He needed to get home and make sure his family was alright. He ran up to the door and pulled it open…Only to stumble back in surprise. Maes fell onto his backside and crawled back a few feet, clutching his chest and hyperventilating at what he saw. For outside the ship had not been the street on which he had entered the strange blue box on, but the unyielding void of space...and he had almost fallen out into it!  
Once his breathing had calmed, he swallowed before getting up slowly and walking back over to the door. He gripped the frame tightly with one hand and stuck out the other and his own head. It wasn’t an illusion. It was freezing cold, and he could feel both the fabric on his arm and the hair on his his head start to lift away from him slightly in the lack of gravity. Even his glasses lifted slightly and so he quickly pulled back into the blue box for safety. He stared out into the inky blackness in a mix of horror, shock, and wonder. He pinched himself just to be sure he still wasn’t under any sort of sedative. No, he was definitely awake...But this was impossible! absolutely impossible! There was no way for anyone to enter into space! The technology simply did not exist! The closest anyone had come to touching the heavens so far was the hot air balloon.  
Then again. He was standing inside a box that was bigger on the inside. But still this made no sense! He had gone into the booth on a sidewalk in Central! How did they get in space?! The Doctor finally caught up to him and sighed at what he saw. Well, at least he didn’t fall out. “I was trying to warn you,” he explained, “We’re in space. This is my spaceship.”  
Maes turned to him with an angry look on his face. “You kidnapped me and took me into space?!” he cried.  
“No! No!” the Doctor said throwing his hands into the air, “Well not on purpose, anyways. Let me explain. After you broke in, which I’m still not sure how that happened to be honest, someone attacked the outer hull of the TARDIS. I had already been preparing to take off before you stumbled in, so she went ahead and did so to escape the attack.”  
Hughes blinked before slowly nodding in understanding. The anger faded from his face. He supposed that made sense. He may have killed one of those oroborus freaks with a knife to the head, but if another who had been after him had seen him enter the box, they might have tried to finish him off by either trying to shoot him through the box or crack it open to get at him. He then suddenly started to chuckle. He ran a hand through his hair and leaned a hand against the wall. The Doctor raised an eyebrow.   
“Sorry,” Maes said, “But this is all just too much. One minute I’m being attacked by some lady with knives for fingers, then I get trapped inside a box that’s bigger on the inside, and now I’m floating through space…every minute things just seem to get weirder. Next you’re probably going to to tell me you’re not human but some kind of homunculus or something…”  
The Doctor’s mouth became a thin line. “Well…” he started, brushing a foot against the steel grating, “I’’m no homunculus, but I’m not exactly human either….”  
Maes stopped his laughter. He looked at the man dead in the eye. “You’re kid-,” he started before stopping himself, “No. Why am I asking that? I already know what the answer is.” The Doctor gave him a grin before shrugging at him. “So if you aren’t a human, then what are you?” he asked, eyeing the Doctor up and down. He certainly looked human, but then again, so did that woman, and she clearly wasn’t. He hoped he wasn’t hiding any weird weapons like her.   
“I’m a timelord,” he explained, “An alien from the planet Gallifrey.”   
“A time-lord?” Maes repeated, “Does that mean you actually control time or is your species just really dramatic when it comes to naming things?”  
The timelord smirked and leaned against the controls. “Eh,” he started, “A bit of both. We can’t control time per say, but we were the first to learn how to time travel.” He pointed behind him at the piston. “This beautiful blue box is actually time machine as well as a space ship,” he explained, “It stands for time and relative dimensions in space. It can any where in time and space I desire.”  
For the umpteenth time that day, Maes’ eyes widened. “Really?” he said, “You can just go back in time and alter history?”  
The Doctor frowned. “No,” he said before grimacing again as he rethought his sentence, “Well, yes, but there are rules. I can’t just go back and change whatever I want.” “Time is like a fabric, and altering it is like pulling out strings,” he explained, “If you start pulling out too many.”  
“It starts falling apart, I understand,” Maes said, nodding, “Kinda like the laws of alchemy. You can try to forgo them, but things will end horribly.” “Wait, if it’s a ship, then why does it look like a phone booth?” he asked.  
The doctor scratched the back of his head. “Well, she’s not supposed to,” he started, “She’s supposed to be able to change her appearance to fit in with her surroundings, but she’s a bit old, and when I landed on a planet called Earth a while back it got stuck that way…”   
Hughes smiled before nodding. “You should really get that fixed,” he said, “Otherwise you’ll be getting a lot more weirdos like me wandering in here out of curiosity!”  
“Yeah...I’ve been meaning to…” he started, “Speaking of which, you never fully explained what happened to you before you wandered in here.”  
“Right,” Maes said with a sigh, running a hand through his hair, “Well, you better sit down. It’s a really long story.” And so the Doctor did, and he began to explain everything. From the uprisings, to Ishval, to what happened in lab five, and as he did so, anger lines started to form on the Doctor’s face. He wasn’t angry at Maes, but he was angry at his government and these strange people with powers. How could they do this to so many people? What were they trying to accomplish?  
“I’m afraid this is all I have so far,” Hughes explained, showing him the map, “It’s a transmutation circle of some kind, but for what reason, we don’t know.” The doctor nodded, a frown still on his face. The Lieutenant Colonel noticed this. “Hey, are you alright?” he asked.  
“Yes,” he said, “But Now I’d really like to have a word with this Fuhrer of yours. He reminds me of another fuhrer that I don’t like.” “I’d also like to get to the bottom of this as much as you,” he said, before moving to the controls, “Come on. Let’s get this information to your friend and get back to digging.”  
Maes blinked before placing a hand on his shoulder. “Now hold up,” he said, “You don’t need to get involved. You’re a civilian.”  
“Yes, but an incredibly nosy one,” the Doctor continued, pulling levers, “And one that definitely isn’t going to stand for anyone slaughtering innocent people. Besides, it isn’t the first time I’ve gotten involved in something I’m not supposed to.”  
“Yes but this is our problem!” Maes explained, “This is our country, our government, our people. Not yours. It’s up to us to fix it. Not some wandering alien.” The Doctor turned to him to argue more, but Maes cut him off. “I’m not saying you couldn’t help, but we want to do this ourselves and we can. I know we look like neanderthals compared to you, but we can fix this. Have a little faith in us. Roy and I were already planning on fixing this country. Now we’re just going to have to do it another way,” he said, “Besides, this is military business. Something tells me you aren’t the kind of guy who wants to get involved in that kind of thing.” Not to mention the fact, he really didn’t want to drag this man to his possible death. He himself had almost died last night for scraping the tip of the iceberg. The last thing he would want is for that to happen to this man who had just saved no matter what species he was.  
The Doctor frowned at him before sighing. “You’re wrong,” he said, “I don’t think you are neanderthals. If there is one thing I know, it’s that humans are capable of anything. But I still want to help you.”  
“Well I suppose there is one thing you can do,” he said pulling out the map again, “If you can figure out what this transmutation circle is for, we’d really appreciate it.”  
The Doctor nodded. “Alright,” he said before pulling out a notebook and writing a number out on a piece of paper, “But if you ever change your mind about wanting my help, take this.” He handed him the slip of paper. “It's my number. it doesn’t matter what line you’re attached to, if you call it, I’ll be able to get it immediately,” he explained, “If anything important happens, tell me. Got it?”  
Maes smiled at him before saluting. “Will do, Sir,” he said.  
“Oi, don’t salute,” the Doctor said, making a disgusted face, “I hate it when people salute me.”  
Maes laughed. “See! That’s the exact reason why you shouldn’t help us!” he said, “If you do, everyone will be saluting you.”  
The Doctor smirked at that. “Well, I guess you have a point then,” he said, “So let’s get you back home then. I hope you don’t mind, but I think I’ll drop you off in a different location, just incase those goons are still after you. Today would be Tuesday, correct? In March of 1914?” Hughes nodded, and with one last pulled lever, the whole room began to shake as Maes had to grip onto the railing to stay upright.   
“Um, is everything alright?” he questioned.  
“Nah, everything’s fine,” the doctor said as he held onto the control panel, “This is completely normal.”  
“Well then, I can see why you have this,” he muttered, looking down at the railing he was clinging to. Once the shaking was done, he stood up and dusted himself off before heading for the door. “Thanks again for everything, Doc,” he said waving ashe began to open the door.  
“It was no trouble. Now get home to your family,” he said before he realized something. “Wait!” he said, patting around his pockets for something. He pulled out a photograph and handed it to him. “I believe this is yours,” he said, “Sorry, it fell on the floor as I was getting your jacket off of you.” Hughes examined it, noting the small drop of blood on the corner. He smiled, however, as the picture still remained intact. Elicia’s bright smile always warmed his heart, especially when he knew he was goign to get to see it again in person soon.   
“Thank you,” he said, still staring down at it.  
“That’s quite a lovely family you’ve got,” the Doctor responded with a wide grin.  
“Yeah, I know I’m lucky,” he said, “I couldn’t ask for a better wife than Gracia, and Elicia is the sweetest little girl in the whole world.”  
The Doctor smirked. “Cherish it now,” he said, “Once she becomes a teenager, all that sweetness is going to become willfulness and moxi. You’ll love her all the same, but she’s going to drive you up several walls in those years.”  
Maes gave him a thoughtful look. “You sound like you’re speaking from experience,” he said, “Do you have a family, Doctor?” He regretted asking that as he could see a flash of pain in the man’s eyes as his grin faded slightly.   
“I did…” he said, “A long time ago...I even had a granddaughter…”  
Maes gave the man a look of surprise and pity. He couldn’t imagine how that must have happened or what kind of pain the man had been through because of it. His heart would be crushed beyond repair if he ever lost his family. “A granddaughter? Really?” he said trying to lighten the mood, “You don’t look nearly old enough to be a grandparent.”  
The Doctor looked up at him. “I’ll have you know that I’m 906 years old,” he noted.  
“Really?” he said, “Well you certainly look good for your age.” He then pulled out a pen and began writing on the back of the photo. “Tell you what, gramps,” he said, “Why don’t you stop by sometime. Maybe for your 907th. We’d love to have you, and you could get a taste of my wife’s famous apple pie. What do you say?” He handed the photo over to him. On the back was his address and phone number.   
The Doctor smiled at him. “I might just have to take you up on that offer,” he said, “Good luck Lieutenant Colonel Hughes.”  
“You as well,” the man said before opening the door and stepping out onto the streets of Central. He began to walk away, but stopped as he heard a strange noise. He turned to watch in awe as the light on top of the phone box flashed and it made a grinding noise as it faded out of existence. Hughes blinked away his surprise before grinning and shaking his head. He then began to head down the street towards his apartment. As he did so, he thought of how he would explain his disappearance to his wife. Would she believe he was abducted by aliens? Probably not…  
He was so distracted by his own thoughts that he didn’t even notice when he bumped straight into someone. He stumbled back and looked up in surprise to see Roy. Roy gave an equal look of shock. Both men stood there for a second before Roy pulled him into a hug. “Roy?!” Hughes questioned pushing away, “Roy, what’s going on? What are you doing here? You looked like you’ve seen a ghost!”  
“I might as well have! Where have you been?” Roy demanded, “We thought you might be dead! You just disappeared one night, and the last person to see you said that you were bleeding profusely from your shoulder. We’ve spent days looking for you with no leads!”  
“Wait, did you say days?!” Hughes questioned, “That’s impossible! That all happened last night.” The Doctor had said it had only been nine hours at the most. How could he have spent days looking for him if he had only been gone a few hours?!  
“Last night?!” Roy gave him an incredulous look, “Hughes, It’s been two weeks since you’ve disappeared! What, were you in a coma or something?!”  
Maes was about to respond when he realized what had happened. His palm met his forehead and he dragged it down his face before he started laughing. He had accidentally dropped him off two weeks late. Well, he supposed he hadn’t been perfectly clear about the date. Besides, the Doctor had said it was an older time machine. He supposed he she should count himself lucky he wasn’t any farther off.   
“Hughes, what the hell is so funny?” Roy demanded, getting angry.  
“It’s a long story. I don’t know how much you’ll believe me, but I’ll try to explain,” he said, “Come on. Let’s get over to my house. I’ve kept my family waiting long enough.”


End file.
